Godliness refers to living a life that reflects reverence and devotion to God, embodying His character in daily conduct. Christian preaching often uses images of nurturing care and steadfast love, emphasizing God’s patience and intimate knowledge of believers’ growth (1 Timothy 4:7-8). It highlights both the hidden spiritual roots and the visible fruit of a godly life (Psalm 1:3).
Education is a blessing that cultivates virtue, intelligence, and grace in life.
Of all the blessings which it has pleased Providence to allow us to cultivate, there is not one which breathes a purer fragrance, or bears a heavenlier aspect, than education. It is a companion which no misfortunes can depress, no crime destroy, no enemy alienate, no despotism enslave; at home a friend, abroad an introduction; in solitude a solace, in society an ornament; it chastens vice; it guides virtue; it gives at once a grace and government to genius. Without it, what is man? A splendid slave, a reasoning savage, vacillating between the dignity of an intelligence derived from God and the degradations of passions participated with brutes, and, in the accident of their alternate ascendancy, shuddering at the terrors of an hereafter, or hugging the horrid hope of annihilation. Phillips.
God values virtue and servitude over status, wealth, or freedom.
With God there is no free man but his servant, though in the galleys; no slave but the sinner, though in a palace; none noble but the virtuous, if never so basely descended; none rich but he that possesseth God, even in rags; none wise but he that is a fool to himself and the world; none happy but he whom the world pities. Let me be free, noble, rich, wise, happy, to God. Bp. Hall.
Serving Christ yields a hundred-fold blessing, far outweighing any worldly loss.
A learned philosopher objected to religion, that, if he should adopt it, he should lose all he had in the world. A Christian friend said, no one ever lost any thing by serving Christ; and offered to give his bond to indemnify the philosopher for all losses, he should suffer on that account
The bond was duly executed, and the philosopher became a praying man. Just before his death, he sent for his Christian friend, and gave him the paper, saying, "Take this bond, and tear it up. I release you from your promise. Jesus has made up to me a hundred-fold for all I ever did or suffered on his account. There is nothing left for you to pay. Tell everybody how true it is that there is great profit in serving Jesus."
Godliness is shown by struggling to escape sin, unlike the unclean who remain in it.
GODLINESS Distinguishing. When the ungodly and the godly fall into the same sin, how can we distinguish between them? By a simple test, — a test by which you may know a sheep from a swine, when both have fallen into the same slough, and are, in fact, so beamed, that you can hardly tell the one from the other. The unclean animal, in circumstances agreeable to its nature, wallows in the mire; but the sheep (type of the godly) fills the air with its bleatings, nor ceases to struggle to get out. Dr. Guthrie.
Some obey God only when it suits them, revealing conditional and incomplete godliness.
Ajax seemed devout towards God so long as nothing was required of him contrary to his affections; but when he was commanded to spare Ulysses, — "In other things I will obey thee, but not in this thing," said he. So it is with the religion of many at the present day. Cawdray.
Godliness provides true comfort, healing, and eternal hope beyond what money can buy.
What is gain? The worldly man says money: the word of God says godliness. What can money do? Can it cure an aching head? Can it ease an aching heart? Can it scare away disease? Can it restore health to the sickly frame, or hope to the hopeless heart? Ah, no! It may purchase a softer pillow to nurse the pain; it may secure a more experienced physician to battle with the disease; it may find a sunnier dime, in which the wasted frame may pine and languish till it be laid to rest in its long home; but there the power of money ends. How is it with godliness? It cannot purchase the softer pillow. Yes, it can. It can place the aching head, the aching heart, on the pillow, — the soft, the downy pillow of contentment. "Father, not my will, but thine, be done." It can secure the services of the Great Physician and the balm of Gilead, — the hand that heals both soul and body. It can waft the wearied heart, that feels the pangs of suffering, the inroads of disease, or the approach of death, — that heart it can waft into the sunnier regions of eternal day; and, while the wasted body pines, the brightening spirit, hovering on the outskirts of heaven, tastes a peace that passeth all understanding, a joy unspeakable and full of glory. R. B. Nichol.
Godly people are often mocked and misunderstood by the ungodly for their strange ways.
As the owl is hooted and wondered at among other birds; even so the godly are often made a gazing-stock and wonderment to the ungodly, because the course of godliness is most strange and foolish in their eyes. Cawdray.
Believers can trust God as a Father who provides all things beneficial in this life and beyond.
As a son may assuredly trust that his father will do all things possible for his advantage; so may we, having Almighty God for our Father, assure ourselves that we shall lack nothing, either in this world or the world to come, that shall be profitable for us. Cawdray.
A godly life carries spiritual power and influence that impacts others profoundly.
John Smith, the Wesleyan preacher of England, was distinguished by no remarkable mental power or culture. The beginning of his ministry was a failure, which drove him nearer to Christ, till his power became akin to the miraculous. His presence carried the power of God with it. It was claimed, that, when he entered an audience, an additional spiritual influence could be felt. His word was with power. His life was power, because he walked with God. Rev. Benjamin Abbott was a man of like power, whose influence could only be ascribed to his godliness.
Godliness is a valuable trade that yields eternal riches, not temporary worldly gain.
A merchant in a single morning will make a hundred pounds, while poor men work hard for a shilling. The voice of Nature is, "How shall we come to be rich?" Prize the trade of godliness. Works of morality are like the laboring man; but godliness is a full merchant's trade, that brings in hundreds and thousands at a clap. Such a trade would God have us set our hearts upon. As Cleopatra said to Marcus Antonius, it was not for him to fish for gudgeons, but for towns, forts, and castles; so it is not for the godly to be trading for transitory trash, but for eternal life, glory, and immortality. Spencer.
True godliness is necessary for our offerings to be acceptable to God.
Before the coming of Christ, sacrifices, to be acceptable, were, by God's command, to be seasoned with salt, else the Lord would not allow them: so, unless we be seasoned with the salt of true godliness, we, and all our doings, shall be unsavory to the Lord. Cawdray.
Though godliness may cost worldly things, it results in losing sin and gaining lasting spiritual benefits.
There dwelt an old and prosperous couple near London, of whom a charity was asked, to which the wife replied, "Why, sir, we have lost a deal by religion since we first began: my husband knows that very well. Have we not, Thomas?" After a solemn pause, Thomas answered, "Yes, Mary, we have. Before I got religion, Mary, I had an old slouched hat, a tattered coat, and mended shoes and stockings; but I have lost them long ago. And, Mary, you know, that, poor as I was, I had a habit of getting drunk, and quarrelling with you; and that you know I have lost. And then I had a hardened conscience, and wicked heart, and ten thousand guilty fears; but all are lost, completely lost, and, like a millstone, cast into the deepest sea. And, Mary, you have been a loser too, though not so great a loser as myself. Before we got religion, Mary, you had a washing-tray, in which you washed for hire; but since then you have lost your washing-tray. And you had a gown and bonnet much the worse for wear; but you have lost them long ago. And you had many an aching heart concerning me at times; but these you happily have lost. And I could even wish that you had lost as much as I have lost; for what we lose for religion will be an everlasting gain."
Godly people may seem weak in the world but are strong in their relationship with God.
As the panther has four claws, and no more, on each foot behind, but five claws, and no less, on each foot before; so the godly, though they be weak worldward, yet are they strong Godward.
— Cowdray
Godliness secures pardon and promises beyond riches or friends.
Suppose a man, sentenced to death, and cast into prison, sends for one of his friends to sue the king for pardon. He answers that he cannot, but will give him a winding-sheet and a coffin. He sends to another, who can do no more than to see him buried. But a third goes to the king, and gets a pardon for him. Riches is the first, friends the second, godliness the third, which gets us a pardon for our sins, and a promise of both this life and that to come.
— Spencer
True godliness matters more than outward prosperity or appearance before God.
When a wealthy merchant bragged to Lycon, a wise philosopher, of the multitude of his ships, and his extensive trade, he answered, “I esteem not that to be felicity which hangs upon ropes and cables.” When a man is at the last cast, it is true piety, and not prosperity, that shall stand a man in stead. The smoke of a great man’s sacrifice smells never the sweeter before God because he is clothed with silk, or, like the bird of paradise, adorned with plumes and feathers. No: it is the inside that God regards. Spencer.
Many great men came from humble origins, showing God can raise anyone for His purposes.
Columbus was the son of a weaver, and a weaver himself. Cervantes was a common soldier. Homer was the son of a small farmer. Molière was the son of a tapestry-maker. Demosthenes was the son of a cutler. Terence was a slave. Oliver Cromwell was the son of a London brewer. Howard was an apprentice to a grocer. Franklin was a journeyman printer, and son of a tallow-chandler and soap-boiler. Dr. Thomas, Bishop of Worcester, was the son of a linen-draper. Daniel Defoe was a hostler, and son of a butcher. Whitefield was the son of an innkeeper at Gloucester. Virgil was the son of a porter. Horace was the son of a shopkeeper.
Shakspeare was the son of a wood-stapler. Milton was the son of a money-scrivener. Robert Burns was a ploughman in Ayrshire. Mohammed, called the prophet, was a driver of asses. Mohamiet Ali was a barber. Madame Bernadotte was a washerwoman of Paris. Napoleon, descendant of an obscure family of Corsica, was a major when he married Josephine, the daughter of a tobacconist Creole of Martinique. Gen. Escartero was a vestry clerk. Bolivar was a druggist. Vasco de Gama was a sailor. John Jacob Astor once sold apples in the streets of New York. Catherine, Empress of Russia, was a camp-grisette. Cincinnatus was ploughing in his vineyard when the dictatorship of Rome was offered him. Elihu Burritt was a blacksmith. Abraham Lincoln was a rail-splitter. Gen. Grant was a tanner. Com. Vanderbilt was a ferryman. Daniel Drew was a poor widow's son. Senator Wilson was a cobbler. Gen. Banks says that he graduated at a university which had a waterwheel at the bottom, and a bell on the top.
True greatness belongs to God alone, not to any human, as Massillon declared.
When Massillon, one of the greatest divines France ever knew, was called to preach the funeral-sermon of the departed king, in the cathedral at Paris, before the reigning king, the royal family, the Chambers, and the grandees of France, he took with him to the sacred desk a little golden urn containing a lock of hair of the late king. The immense congregation was seated, and the silence of death reigned. Massillon arose, holding the urn in his fingers; his hand resting upon the sacred cushion. All eyes were instantly fixed upon him. Moments, minutes, passed. Massillon stood motionless, pale as a statue. The feeling became intense. Many believed he was struck dumb before the august assembly; many sighed and groaned aloud; many eyes were suffused with tears; when the hand of Massillon was seen slowly raising the little golden urn, his eyes fixed upon the king. As the hand was returned to the sacred cushion, the loud and solemn voice of Massillon was heard in every part of the cathedral, "God alone is great!" So I say to you to-day, "There is no human greatness: God alone is great!" G. C. Cookman.
Godliness in learned men produces more excellent fruit than the same grace in unlearned men.
As a diamond set in gold is far more brilliant than if incased in base metal; so godliness planted in learned men's breasts brings forth more excellent fruit than the same grace in unlearned men. Cawdray.
Religious obligations are universal, binding all men to righteousness beyond church membership.
All the great duties of a Christian life are no more incumbent upon Christians than upon other men; for men are bound to be and do right on the religious scale of rectitude, not because they are Christians, but because they are men. Religious obligations took hold of us when we were born. They waited for us as the air did. They have their sources back of volition, back of consciousness, just as attraction has. Though a man declares himself an atheist, it in no way alters his obligations. Right and wrong do not spring from the nature of the church. Obligation lies deeper than that. The church is a mere organization to help a man fulfil his duties: it is not the source from whence those duties sprang. It is as much the worldling's duty to love God and obey his laws as the Christian's. Beecher.
Restlessness hinders godliness; stillness and knowing God bring contentment.
There is a restlessness and a fretfulness in these days, which stand like two granite walls against godliness. Contentment is almost necessary to godliness, and godliness is absolutely necessary to contentment. A very restless man will never be a very godly, and a very godly man will never be a very restless man. "Be still, and know that I am God."
The Bible's presence and reading empower nations and individuals with spiritual strength and victory.
Father Hyacinthe, an eloquent and fearless Roman-Catholic priest in Paris, while recently preaching a charity-sermon in Lyons, in behalf of the asylum for the poor, having asked his audience, which was composed of the principal Roman-Catholic families, if they knew why Prussia triumphed on the field of battle in the war with Austria, said, "It is because the nation is more enlightened, more religious, and because every Prussian soldier has the Bible in his knapsack. I will add, that what produces the power and superiority of Protestant peoples is, that they possess and read the Bible at their own firesides. I have been twice in England, and have learned that the Bible is the strength of that nation."
King Edward saw evil in unjust taxation and restored money to its rightful owners.
A large sum of money having been collected by Edward, king and saint, for the tribute called Danegelt, it was conveyed to the palace, and the king was called to see it. At the sight thereof, he started back, exclaiming, that he beheld a demon dancing upon the money, and rejoicing. Thereupon, he commanded that the gold should be restored to its owners, and released his subjects from that grievous tribute.
— Mrs. Jameson
Reading the Bible is essential for true eloquence and understanding of pure language.
Fisher Ames, a distinguished American statesman and orator, who died in 1809, was ardently attached to the Bible. He lamented its prevailing disuse in schools, and thought that children should be well acquainted with it, both on account of the all-important truths it contains, and because they would thus learn the English language in its purity.
He was accustomed to say, "I will hazard the assertion, that no man ever did, or ever will, become truly eloquent, without being a constant reader of the
Bible, and an admirer of the purity and sublimity of its language."
Good manners reflect godly humility even in positions of authority.
It is related of Pope Clement XIV, (Ganganelli,) that when he ascended the papal chair, the ambassadors of the several states represented at his court waited on him with their congratulations. When they were introduced and bowed, he returned the compliment by bowing also; on which the master of the ceremonies told his highness that he should not have returned their salute. "O, I beg your pardon," said the good pontiff, I have not been pope long enough to forget good manners."
Better to spoil a story than to cause distress to a worthy person.
Louis the XIVth, in a gay party at Versailles, thought he perceived an opportunity of relating a facetious story. He commenced, but ended the tale abruptly and insipidly. One of the company soon after leaving the room, the king said, "I am sure you must all have observed how very uninteresting my anecdote was. I did not recollect till I began, that the turn of the narrative reflected very severely on the immediate ancestor of the prince, or Armigue, who has just quitted us; and on this, as on every occasion, I think it far better to spoil a good story, than distress a worthy man."
Respect and good manners should be shown to all, regardless of social status.
When Sir William Johnson returned the salute of a negro who had bowed to him, he was reminded that he had done what was very unfashionable. “Perhaps so,” said Sir William, “but I would not be outdone in good manners by a negro.”
# DULITY.
readily, “The church believes what I believe.” The other, desirous, if possible, to bring him to particulars, once more resumed his inquiry. “Tell me, then, I pray you, what it is which you and the church both believe.” The only answer the collier could give was, “Why, truly, sir, the church and I both—believe the same thing.”
# 115. Cruelty Exemplified.
A landlady's gift of a Bible encouraged a young sailor's lifelong godly devotion.
Admiral Colpoys, who rose to that high station as the effect of his meritorious exertions, used to be fond of relating, that on first leaving an humble lodging to join his ship, as a midshipman, his landlady presented him with a Bible and
### 376. ROBBER
